Buying a Bus

I’ll get to the story of how I got here in another post, but I wanted to take a little time and get out what’s happened in the past week.

I’ve been looking for a school bus RV conversion for some time. It’s a dream of mine to travel and live a kind of alternative life. I put up a GoFundMe page and was so excited to have my friends and family support me. I really didn’t think it would do much. I’ve raised $2695 in about a month, between contributions from people I know and things I’ve done to raise funds on my own.

Last week, I responded to a Kijiji ad for a short, 16 passenger bus that has already been (roughly) converted to an RV and titled as a motorhome. Perfect! After going to see it, and some expert negotiating by my brother, I bought the bus for cash.

It’s a 1994 diesel with a Ford F350 V8 engine. Or whatever. But it runs and it’s in good shape! We got it back to Aurora, where I’m staying right now, and I’ve been planning and filling my notebook full of ideas and lists and drawings.

That was Wednesday. On Friday I started called to set up insurance, but they said they wouldn’t cover the bus. So I called a couple more, same thing.

I’m pretty determined when I want something, so Monday when the offices opened I called another several insurance companies, both directly and through brokers. Every promising lead has turned out a dud. It’s very disheartening.

After calling 15 insurance companies, I’m not sure I’ll be able to insure it at all. Which SUCKS.

If that ends up being the case… Well, I guess I’ll need to sell the bus and go for a regular RV. I’m worried though that they won’t insure an old RV, which is all I can afford. I know they ask for a propane inspection before anything, which is $200 just for the inspection! Then fixing any issues. And the funny thing is I won’t even use the propane – I’m super afraid of it.

I went back on Kijiji and emailed a couple people selling converted buses to see who their insurance is with. So far, I haven’t had any luck. If by tomorrow I’m not able to get a solid lead and be on my way to insuring it, I’m going to have to post it for sale and go with something else.

Stay tuned. And cross your fingers!